alphateam

I didn't realize this policy went in to effect. Yesterday I saw the woot-off and bought an item thinking great what else can I get today with the free shipping. Sadly, I didn't look much at the woot-off.

Everyone was saying "I'm not buying here anymore". Complaining isn't going to do much. People are going to have to vote with their dollars and stop making purchases.

NascarDad

idz21 wrote:It seems like the new policy hasn't slowed down the woot-off a bit. Woot knew that some people will care but there will be enough others that will just continue to buy. Even some completely stupid items that were posted yesterday sold out in no time.

Most shoppers dont even read the forums, but they will start to realize it. May take a few woot-offs until more and more people realize what has happened, but it will happen. After all, if the people come for deals, they will notice the 5 dollars shipping.

They probably wont complain, they will just not shop at woot anymore. The customers that do not complain are the toughest to get back . They are the nightmare of many businesses, because if they don't complain, the business owner can't make it right and get those customers back.

Also, it is hard to say from our perspective on whether the sales are affected. Would have to compare many factors, like the Woot Wage, and compare to past woot-offs.

mshuisherself

I know I'm echoing a lot of other people, but I would much rather have to do a few extra clicks, and get free shipping for the day, than have the "convenience" of a cart. Woot-off just got a lot less interesting - no more impulse buys when it's an extra $5 each time! This will definitely affect my purchasing.

If Woot does want to be more efficient with their shipping (which admittedly I have laughed at before - getting 2 different style water bottles in 2 different packages!) - then do like someone suggested much earlier - wait until midnight, then treat all of a user's purchases from that day as a single order, and ship accordingly.

dand2400

Another vote for $5 'all-day-shipping' during Woot-Offs. I, for one have held back on purchasing Woot-Off items yesterday and today because of the $5 shipping for each item. Another change to Woot, not for the better.

proptart27

I think fewer people would be taken in by the abrupt shipping change if the product page had the little "+ $5 shipping" notice like it used to. Otherwise people who got used to the free shipping think it is still that way.

That being said, I really dislike the new system for Woot-Offs. I didn't buy anything like other times because it would have been too expensive.

swmbo

I know I didn't realize that this change had taken place - yesterday I bought two items and it was a surprise when the second one in the day still had shipping ... that's what made me track down this thread.

This won't completely kill my wooting - there are several wineries that I love and will keep buying when they show up, but it's killed my impulse buying. (And most of the 'deals' on items below $25 don't reflect the return of the $5 shipping on a woot-off ... when you add 5 bucks, suddenly 25-33% off looks really sad.)

jeepinmark

Thanks Woot! This new policy has cured me of impluse buying on a Woot Off! No longer do I feel it's a great deal because of $5 all day shipping. I can now close my web browser and not feel like I missed out on that 32 oz jar of mustard that looked like such a great deal until I figured in the shipping cost.

str8juice

bobiii84

So in case this was missed, the cart has another bug. Yesterday during the woot off I added two sets of kids books with 50% left and one dyson with 1% left. It told me to wait a few minutes while it checked if there were more (dysons) When I came back it said there weren't but I didn't get ANYthing that was in my cart...

italianemperor

1. If you want to send us less boxes, that is fine with me. Make one shipment per day of all orders placed, and one shipment at the end of a woot off. I can wait a little longer. I pay 5 bucks flat, and you save on packaging. Win-Win.

2. There are people here paying $89 for Amazon Prime. You are clearly using their fulfilment systems, as all the recent orders show up in Amazon boxes with Amazon receipts. To charge those people again to use the same system (and slower shipping, not 2 day) is really dishonest.

Jfrench0954

"...but the truth is we sell stuff at such stupid low prices in the Woot-Off that you're still getting a good deal."

Not the truth. That $12.99 sleeping bag that my son will use twice cost me $17.99. It's one thing to charge $5 on a big-ticket item. You knowingly increased the price by 30+% (and I unknowingly bought it thinking I had unlocked free shipping).

TheCK

NascarDad wrote:Most shoppers dont even read the forums, but they will start to realize it. May take a few woot-offs until more and more people realize what has happened, but it will happen. After all, if the people come for deals, they will notice the 5 dollars shipping.

They probably wont complain, they will just not shop at woot anymore. The customers that do not complain are the toughest to get back . They are the nightmare of many businesses, because if they don't complain, the business owner can't make it right and get those customers back.

Also, it is hard to say from our perspective on whether the sales are affected. Would have to compare many factors, like the Woot Wage, and compare to past woot-offs.

I'm pretty sure Woot is just doing low numbers of the items - they need to keep the perception that there is a need for speed and that you must order with urgency - it would be particularly bad timing if they let people put their guard down now and people saw things taking a long time to sell. I'm sure there is strategy here that is keeping it flowing "suspiciously" fast for a woot off - I mean we really haven't seen a single big woot killer - so I am pretty sure they just are using low number of items to keep flow and you on your seats edge.

TheCK

Jfrench0954 wrote:"...but the truth is we sell stuff at such stupid low prices in the Woot-Off that you're still getting a good deal."

Not the truth. That $12.99 sleeping bag that my son will use twice cost me $17.99. It's one thing to charge $5 on a big-ticket item. You knowingly increased the price by 30+% (and I unknowingly bought it thinking I had unlocked free shipping).

Shaking my fist at you, Woot.

I'm telling you it will only take 1 lawyer to fix this - they are knowingly misleading people by not having better information on the change highlighted and requiring to be checked off on the purchase page - just 1 - and I am sure you'll all get a refund - it's blatantly hidden out of site on purpose!

TheCK

jeepinmark wrote:Thanks Woot! This new policy has cured me of impluse buying on a Woot Off! No longer do I feel it's a great deal because of $5 all day shipping. I can now close my web browser and not feel like I missed out on that 32 oz jar of mustard that looked like such a great deal until I figured in the shipping cost.

Thats the worst thing you could do - keep checking their site - you want their traffic to be super high but sales to be down - that is the only way to make a point - if traffic is low then they can attribute slow sales to that - if it's high they have to realize it's the shipping.

rt2dz

So glad I saw this before I started making a purchase. Not good at all. Woot Offs are completely useless now. That's a strictly impulse buy, since you have free shipping and all.

Especially, despite what Woot (I mean Amazon) thinks, your prices are NOT ridiculously low. I can frequently find an item for barely more, equal, or even less elsewhere. It can be the shipping that makes a difference. Main stream sites offer coupons up to 30% off with free shipping frequently. Heck, I'm not Prime and I very, very rarely even pay for shipping on Amazon.

And as for the cart and shipping... I'd go with Zulliy model. Add to cart or buy now options, then after first purchase, free shipping for the rest of the day. At the end of the day, all items are boxed together and shipped. Not that difficult. Oh, and that's a site I frequently find the same items for less than Woot. Maybe that's why I purchase from them much more regularly.

mmoconnor

I bought a bike rack today thinking I had unlocked the free shipping. There was a bunch of little odds and ends I would have bought today too. Now I feel like I got burned. I would cancel my purchase if I could. This new policy takes all the fun out of a Woot-Off.

foosmaniac

Pretty simple for me--as soon as I noticed my second order has the extra five added to it and this was the new policy--I cancelled both orders and did not order at all. I usually buy about ten items or more during a woot off. Now I will not buy anything and I hope others follow suit. Woot will go back to the way it was if people do not buy.

NascarDad

TheCK wrote:I'm pretty sure Woot is just doing low numbers of the items - they need to keep the perception that there is a need for speed and that you must order with urgency - it would be particularly bad timing if they let people put their guard down now and people saw things taking a long time to sell. I'm sure there is strategy here that is keeping it flowing "suspiciously" fast for a woot off - I mean we really haven't seen a single big woot killer - so I am pretty sure they just are using low number of items to keep flow and you on your seats edge.

I even wonder timer on it. How would we know if they sold out of something or not. But I have seen the exact same chairs, microphones, etc repeatedly. I know in many woot offs there are a few repeat items, and a few mistakes. And the infamous April 1st one lol.. but it seems just a lot more this time.

mookrz

I would really like to see the $5 per order shipping suspended for woot-offs. I tend to buy items throughout the day during a woot-off and paying for shipping for each and every order is going to be somewhat painful, i.e. make me not order as many items.

damorere

ddarity wrote:Wish I had been smart enough to do the same. Spent $5 on a $7 purchase. Feel kinda scammed on that, wish we could cancel. Learn from our mistakes and Buyer Beware.

After almost 300 woots, I'm pretty much done. I got burned a couple of days ago not realizing that $5 all day shipping was gone and wound up paying three times for shipping. No more woot offs for me except for the occasional wine I've been waiting for. The deals just aren't that good without the unlocked shipping.

draigun

Am I the only one who actually reviews my order before placing it, including the price? :T (except for the BoC, though that's consistently $8 aside from the $1mill crap)

This system is still better from what it was before. One item per order, $5 shipping every time. The only thing it really affects is the Woot-Off, and I'd definitely agree with having the unlocked shipping feature enabled for those. Too many things I've been passing on today because the $5 shipping just wasn't worth it.

romwil

Woot- I knew you back in the day. See my account? Joined in 2006. Been here ever since.

I'm one of those crazy people that have a full monkey collection.

I've been here through the cat picture days, the crazy April fools gags, the woot offs that literally ran for days...

I'd buy items on the fly- a quick impulse buy and then recheck during the woot off or the day because I 'got free shipping'.

No longer.

You lost your edge guys.

Look, I'm trying to help here... Remember what makes you different and stick to it. Remember- it was a stupidly large button we mash to buy our crap as quickly as possible before it sold out.

Who needs a cart to do that.

I understand you have grown and have added some 'marketing' people- but they need to remember that your core audience isn't a naive crowd- not one that will believe a saccharine 'market speak' blurb that tries to convince us that this change is double plus good.

zarchitect

I won't rant about the shipping change - that's your deal Woot - not mine. You want to make an extra buck - that's fine - you're a biz - eck out any and all pocket-change you can.

My rant is about this - The Woot (and I mean the trend-setter entity) that once was - is no longer. Not sure if you noticed it now that you've been sucked into the corporate juggernaut of The Big "A" but your edge is gone. You've been reduced to a seller of cheap left-overs to an unsuspecting market of people left over from old followers who are slowly coming to this realization. Amazon is using you to rid of its excess and as the number of sales dwindle, you'll be shut down and will be a forgotten dot com of days past. You have been reduced to a disposable marketing spreadsheet pitched at some corporate meeting to increase sales. Woot - you could have been a "What if" - now you're a "and so it goes..."

Take care old friend, it's been nice knowing you...

And for all you dedicated Woot employees - I'd start dusting off that resume, writing's on the wall!

limacamp

This woot off has saved me hundreds of dollars! I bought one item in the woot off, 3 art kits for my b*tch sister in laws kids. I can't wait for them to have 3 boxes of art supplies to decorate all the things! (This is well thought out, my mother in law babysits, for free!)

My credit card loves me and my poor small town mail man will probably be out of a job, but hey! woot just lost a long time, high buying high dollar customer!
(Viewing orders 1-10 of 300)...customer since 2007!

FyrFytr44

I may only have ordered 25 items from Woot since I joined on September 25, 2005...but this is not a site that I have forgotten. I still check it everynight at 1am (Eastern time) and I still watch Woot-Offs. I don't have to sit at home for the woot-off anymore, I have it on my phone with an app...but that doesn't mean I am not interested.

I joined in 2005 because it was fun. Quarky items, silly jokes and descriptions, an e-shopping experience that was fun and entertaining...its all gone to the corprate world. Back then the site was unique, one item a day on sale until its gone...now its a concept that is everywhere. Now everyone has a daily deal, and rather then stick to the Woot! roots it has gone the way of mainstream. I remember the jokes and the reasoning for the naming of the woot shopping thing with yahoo shopping, sellout.woot.com So named by the woot staff (if memory serves me correctly) because they had soldout to the man. Woot! was one item, one day....now there are 10 other things you can put before woot.com and geat a deal.

Will a shopping cart make me buy something, not really. Unless it is like a REAL shopping cart...where once it is in your cart it is yours to purchase (within time limits). Does $5 all day shipping make it a deal breaker for me, no, I will still purchase...however I may not pick up some of the misc crap (note, not a Bag of Cowardliness) that I may have picked up with the free shipping unlocked. If you want to be a groundbreaking deal site like you where when I joined...be groundbreaking and make everything free shipping! Just add the $5 to the price of the item and make us feel like we are getting a deal.

As a long time wooter I will still come to the site on a daily basis. If I am home I will still have the site up and mash the F5 key to see what the item is or how much is left...but the site is no longer what it was, and it saddens me greatly. This was a great site, it was fun to shop...now it is just another site I check as part of my nightly rutine. Other then to post this, I prolly havent logged in other then a wootoff in 6 months. There is no reason for woot staff to dust off the resume, someone will gobble it up....just like Microsoft did to Jellyfish

Krisalev

I've been disappointed for a while with Woot. Been a member for a number of years. I don't think this will engender any warm, fuzzy feelings with your members. I agree with the person who felt it was like when J.C.Penney's starting everyday low prices - no sales and lost lots of their business. Not a bargain anymore.

cloakboy

There was just a woot off. I wanted to buy things all day. I didn't, because everything was an extra $5 shipping. Woot-offs and $5 all you can ship went together sooooo well. I always wondered why woot didn't have a cart, but had I known it meant this... so sad. Maybe one day I'll be back, but taking something away we once had sucks. Goodbye impulse buys. Goodbye woot

KimNicole

ThunderThighs wrote:As far as the woot-off, we know this is a change. The $5 all day shipping was always stated to be a temporary thing. We did that to make up for the fact that we didn't have a cart.

I can see this as a plus for woot's profits, but not a plus for my wallet. At this point, Amazon has effectively killed you as separate brand. The sales are rarely exciting or useful. The items sold on woot Plus are found more cheaply in other places.

For a few dollars more, I can fill a cart at a lot of merchants, have free shipping and get exactly what I want. Real deals on things I want, need and use. The lack of understanding of the model the site is based on is sort of amazing, but it's not my problem.

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